What is
freedom of speech and why is it relevant to society?
Most
people respond that freedom of speech is the right to say whatever you want or
to voice your own opinion. While this makes all of you feel better knowing you
won’t be murdered by your government for speaking your mind, this is just a
minor point in its relevancy to society. Few people realize that actions are
really what enable the society to progress through freedom of speech. MLK's I
have a dream speech was not nearly as important as the simple act of a black
man, in those times, walking up to the podium to speak for the oppressed.
Freedom of speech is changing your online habits to avoid NSA spying. Freedom
of speech is all of the small choices you make daily that you don't even think
about.
In the
age of the internet people still fail to realize that real life and internet,
while connected, are not one and the same. On the internet you are given the
choice to choose how you represent yourself. In real life you are represented
by the way you look, by the colour of your skin, by the clothes you wear, by
your accent, by your gender and many other arbitrary things. On the internet
none of these things matter. Considering this imagine an account on twitter had
images of swastikas and they said the word "nigger." Most people pass
by that account assuming they are inherently racist. The internet is made up of
free speech and symbolism displayed on a screen. It’s not made up of anything
tangible. Its 2013 and people are still offended by words and symbols on a
screen. 4chan has used words and symbolism not to define itself but to keep out
the people that have failed to understand them in real life. People that don't
get there jokes and fail to grasp the simple ideas spread around. Maybe the
twitter account posting swastikas just wanted to offend you and keep you out of
their mentions.
Recently @anon_central was suspended for allegedly d0xing
someone. First off the person posting most of that was being an idiot but they
didn't d0x anyone. What was posted was a link that was in the top search on
google.com. They also did not create the images posted. Were they suspended for
linking content that already existed? Are you going to be happy when you get
suspended for posting a link that you found on google? Did they cause you to
have feels and butthurts? Or did they create a platform in which people
discussed other relevant issues about rape that rarely gets discussed? Let us
consider what the West Boro Baptist church actually did to help the LGBT rights
and communities. Before the WBC there was no way America was ready for Gay
people to marry. The WBC showed the American population a polar extreme on the
Gay rights debate. They showed the world a caricature of homophobia. They
showed Americans what their own homophobic thoughts really looked like.
Ironically
Even the
"negatives" of free speech are relevant to society. Freedom of speech
doesn't mean you get to choose who gets to use it.
Recent
revelations about NSA spying have back the terrible phrase, "If you have
nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." this is a statement that gets
put out without any real rebuttal to why or how it is so detrimental to the
growth of society. We know that people willing give up liberty for security in
our "Free" society. I feel they would be less inclined to if they
knew the harm it caused. Spying is censorship. If you believe that everything you
type up on a digital device, or the words you say on a cell phone are be
listened to you will begin to censor yourself. You start becoming afraid that
the people spying may not understand what it is you are trying to say and think
you have malicious intent. We have seen this happen too many times. We have the
Facebook rapper, the Tumblr experiment, the airport sandwich guy and so on.
Spying forces people to revoke their own freedom of expression.
(Source)
Undisclosed
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